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Wednesday, 25 July 2012

Tax, loopholes and why we're being blamed for the mess this country's in

So this week I have been getting more and more incensed by various pieces of news:

After the G4S Olympic security shambles the head of G4S, Nick Buckles, announced that he had no intention of resigning his post or worse still, waiving the £57m fee despite taking responsibility for the mess.

It was revealed that the BBC has been paying their star employees through payment schemes which allowed them to pay less tax;

Despite the country being in the depths of recession due mainly to the greedy bankers, over 1000 of them were rewarded to a 'festival for bankers' by the Square Mile magazine. They were treated to champagne, strippers, massages and dancers. If you want to be even more disgusted, watch this video on the Sky website and listen to them justify themselves.

Major companies trading in the UK, such as Amazon and Google somehow manage to avoid paying tax here and many others, such as Vodfone, are in the business of reducing their tax bills by any means possible.

And then yesterday Treasury Minister David Gauke had the nerve to try and foist the blame onto people who pay tradesmen in cash. What he actually said is that it's "morally wrong" to pay cash in hand to anyone. How can he compare it to the £5bn in tax avoidance that goes on, which was what he was actually supposed to be talking about. But no, once again, the little person is to blame. Unbelievable!

My message to Mr Gauke is this: Sort of the rest of this shoddy mess first, and then you can tell me not to pay my window cleaner in cash. Okay?